In the first sentence of his excellent 9 December 2013 blog post, Andrew McAfee points out the following: "Here's a simple rule for the second machine age we're in now: as the amount of data goes up,

In software and systems engineering, a use case is a list of steps, typically defining interactions between a role (known in Unified Modeling Language (UML) as an "actor") and a system, to achieve a goal. The actor can be a human or an external system.

Since its inception, enterprise architecture has suffered an evolution failure. Why "suffered"? Because EA has gradually become an area of exclusive IT competency.

Among the most intriguing books about leadership I've read in the last year was David Marquet's Turn the Ship Around, in which Marquet -- a submarine captain of the US Navy -- describes how he turned the frustrated crew o

"Connection, I just can't make no connection" -- (Connection, Mick Jagger/Keith Richards)

This is an interesting time in the evolution toward the Internet of Things (IoT). On the road toward well-integrated, well-protected, useful interconnected systems, four things need to happen: interest, technology enablers, security, and management skills.

Having watched technology trends for a very long time, I have noticed how time and again great ideas get watered down as they reach larger and larger audiences and are applied to bigger and bigger problems. In a way, this phenomenon resembles dropping a large rock in a lake.

I'm excited about the Internet of Things (IoT), and I expect it to create incredible opportunities for companies in almost every industry.

In negotiations, there is always a tension between trying to achieve the most effective outcomes for your side of the table and trying to build and maintain relationships with the other parties. The difficulty is greatest when both the outcome and the relationship matter a lot, and where any tradeoffs you make favoring one over the other come with benefits but also with substantial costs.

Although currently limited in its application, streaming analytics technology is going to experience a lot more use as the IoT begins to advance due to its ability to ingest and analyze very high volumes of continuously streaming data (both unstructured and semistructured) in real time. Basically, both of these characteristics are key for sensor data management systems.

In the early 1980s, Douglas Adams became famous for creating a future world that was both advanced and absurd in the Hitchh

Management reserve is a tool that project managers can use to protect the project schedule against unplanned changes that compromise the project completion date.

One of the hits that enterprise architecture has taken over the years is that while enterprise architecture studies produce interesting pictures, they often don't produce "actionable" information.

[From the Editor: This week's Cutter IT Advisor is from Sue McKinney's introduction to the February 2014 issue of Cutter IT Journal, " Agile Architecture: Dodo Bird or Differentiator?" (Vol. 27, No. 2).

Lynn Winterboer answers questions on user stories, how regulatory requirements play out in Agile DW/BI, examples of good acceptance criteria, and the recommended sprint length for DW teams.

Keeping up with IT is a tough business. There is always something new, and the current Big Thing is liable to be the next Old Thing (Old Hat?) fast enough to make your head spin. Sometimes it feels like it is almost impossible to keep up.

The statistics I have seen recently give me a euphoric feeling about the pace of Agile adoption. However, I feel that most of the so-called "Agile projects" are just the "water-Scrum-fall," which no one is willing to admit. I could list various reasons behind the failure, but one thing that stands out clearly is a poor Agile adoption strategy.

A while back, I was talking to an IT executive about a recent downsizing exercise that his company had gone through. As a result of an early buyout, the IT organization had persuaded 100+ people to take early retirement, which was roughly 10% of the IT group's full-time employees.

As the number of application programming interfaces (APIs) an enterprise uses increases, concerns around lifecycle management, security, and scalability start surfacing. Enterprises need to manage the API lifecycle and establish policies around the security and usage of those APIs. Many organizations have started adopting API management platforms to address some of the key capability needs, including:

Depending on their maturity (as determined by the Social Media Maturity Model we describe in Measuring the ROI of Social Media and Social Media Analysis Investments, companies can leverage the advantages of social media using the 4C strategy, which consists of Content, Communication, Community, and Collaboration (see Table 1):

Most current IT managers and enterprise architects have come up through the ranks of traditional programming, systems design, and systems analysis.

Say "42" to any geek, and they will know immediately what you mean.

Traditional performance management rarely assesses a person's actual performance. Most managers focus instead on one's behaviors and skills. In addition, managers rarely evaluate outcomes achieved by an individual or team member -- such as monetary results or quantifiable validated learning, however the team defines them -- which would instead ensure that individuals be accountable to each other and their teams' commitments.

Over the past decade those associated with EA frameworks have become familiar with the common components: business architecture, data (information) architecture, application architecture, and technology.

In a recent Executive Report ("Enterprise Architecture and Social Technologies") we explored the impact of social technologies when they are largely outside of the enterprise boundary.